The invention relates to a loading device making it possible to raise large roll bodies weighing up to several hundred or thousand kilograms from a supported position into a working position, so that they can freely rotate or are freely accessible for the removal of the material, e.g. for unwinding a material web. Such rolls can e.g. have a maximum diameter over 1.5 m.
Such loading devices must make it possible to receive rolls having different external diameters, e.g. the minimum roll diameter being approximately 0.50 m. Independently of the diameter differences the receiving shaft of the roll carrier member must be easily alignable with the roll shaft, so that it is possible to engage the roll hub formed by an axle or shaft sleeve with the particular receiving head of the roll support member. For this purpose the roll support member can be controlled in such a way that its receiving shaft, via an aligning path passes over an approximately linear or vertical movement path, which coincides with the axial plane in which are located the roll shafts independently of the roll diameter, if the rolls are made available in a predetermined, supported position.
In order to be able to linearly supply to a loading position in such an arrangement rolls having a maximum external diameter in such a way that without any transverse movement thereof they can be brought into supporting engagement with the roll support member, the latter can be transversely displaceable with a slide, but this leads to a complicated and space-requiring arrangement. In addition, the alignment of the receiving shaft with the particular roll shaft is difficult, because independently of one another the slide must be adjusted transversely to the vertical axial plane of the roll and the roll support member in the vertical direction of the roll to the shaft thereof.